The EVO 80 from 2005 is the waveboard I use in strong wind conditions(4.2 -4.7m2).
My weight is 90kg and the spots I do surf is mainly Gran Canaria Islands and Cape-Town for several weeks a year.
Above 30knots the board starts to react slowly and not fast enough for narrow turns.
But I am still glad to have enough volume to pass shorebreak with my weight.
I need to buy a new board end of this year and my favorits are the Kode 80 or the EVO 75, both in woodcarbon construction.
What would you recommend? Is there a difference of behaviour vs. volume from Kode 80 to EVO 80?
Thanks for your response.
reddo

The first question is how attached you are to the way the EVOs work on wave. When you try a more "classic" wave board like the Kode you will notice how easy the EVO turns, particularly in the last part of the bottom turn where you go more vertical towards the lip. So before changing to another type of board, I strongly suggest testing before buying.

But as you say, the EVOs can be a handful when it gets windy and then you can no longer access the nice turning. They can also be difficult in the top turn if you come in with a lot of speed. The way to handle this, as you have noted, is to sacrifice some volume.

So the EVO 75 option will let you still have that EVO feeling in the wave riding but be much easier and more natural in high wind and in bigger waves and faster wave riding.

The Kode 80 has a faster and more direct feel to it. You get a very nice feeling of the rail carving through the water. On this narrower shape, you can afford a bit more volume and still get very nice high wind and big wave performance. The Kode 80 will still plane very easy and early in light wind, but you need to work it more in slow waves and/or cross onshore to go vert and hit the lip as well as an EVO. The more sideshore it gets and the better the wave becomes, the easier the Kode is to ride.

So basically there are two consideration
1. Will you be comfortable on only 75 liters?
2. Do you want the turny "vertical style" EVO style or the more direct but more directional Kode style carving?

If the answer to 1 is yes and you prefer the EVO feel, then the EVO 75 is the easy answer. If you like to try the Kode feel the answer is easy too. The problem is if you are hesitant towards 75 liter but still like EVO feel.

Then one option is to try the EVO 80 xtv. It has changed quite significantly since 05 with both a bit sharper feel and significantly better high wind and fast riding speed performance. It is still about as wide, but it has a new rocker and v and thinner rails. Maybe it will work.

There is also the Evil Twin 80. Despite being as wide as the EVO 80 most people think it rides smaller, especially on the wave. This is both due to a narrower tail and due to the twin fin concept itself which makes it easier to bury the rail. The Evil Twin feels very similar to the EVO on the wave, but the top turn is looser.

So I gave you four option instead of two, so maybe I'm not helping you decide...

But I still hope the post helps clarifying what the different option might mean for you sailing and if you want to know more, just ask again.

Hi Ola
thanks for your advises. It is definitly not easy for a havy weight (90kg) like me to chose a single waveboard solution. I know this problem.
To my understanding with the recommended Evo 75 carbon-wood 2009 ,we have a weight difference of about 1.5kg to my old Evo 80.
Does it mean the volume feels bigger than the previous Evo 75 and instead of a heavy 80 liters board I could use a 75 liter carbon wood and I have about the same feeling?

But as you say, the EVOs can be a handful when it gets windy and then you can no longer access the nice turning. They can also be difficult in the top turn if you come in with a lot of speed. The way to handle this, as you have noted, is to sacrifice some volume.

Then one option is to try the EVO 80 xtv. It has changed quite significantly since 05 with both a bit sharper feel and significantly better high wind and fast riding speed performance. It is still about as wide, but it has a new rocker and v and thinner rails. Maybe it will work.

There is also the Evil Twin 80. Despite being as wide as the EVO 80 most people think it rides smaller, especially on the wave. This is both due to a narrower tail and due to the twin fin concept itself which makes it easier to bury the rail. The Evil Twin feels very similar to the EVO on the wave, but the top turn is looser.

I currently have the evo 08 80XTV and the evo 06 74 because of the issue you discribe; the evo 80 is great but when it gets really windy the evo 74 is so much easier and snappier to go to the lip, on the otherhand mostly i need the float to get through the dutch norhtsea breaks with my 83Kg's. Based on your comments; will the evil twin 80 give me the float of the evo 80 and the highwind waveriding performance of the evo 74? I can finally go for the 1 board option....

No. The old (and new) 80 and EVO 75 are two very different boards, and even 1.5kg weight difference will not erase that difference.

When I read your question again, I think it might be worth trying the Kode 80 after all. Superb high wind performance. In SA you will have nice sideshore conditions, generally, and then it is less demanding to go vertical also in the more traditional type Kode wave board. And in GC the sailing might be more jumping oriented anyway, right? The Kode is developed from the Acid which have been considered on of the best down the line production boards for years _and_ a very good high wind control board. Maybe this is what you're after?

Its a bit hard to say since in high wind wave riding at our spots, not only does the wave get bigger but it often becomes very choppy and generally difficult to sail too. The ET 80 will for sure handle a fast top turn easier than the E80 due to the narrower tail if nothing else. But in these choppy high wind conditions setting up a good bottom turn is very difficult and I think a bigger board (ET80 vs E74) will not make it easier. But all these things are very sailor dependant and also a matter of getting to know ones board and how it is best sailed. So my answer is that I'm not sure how you will find it. Maybe it will replace the 74, maybe not.

If you want to take a chance, I would trade the E80 for an ET80 and then keep the E74 for a while until you know. There is probably not so much money left in an E74 (though by all means its still a very good board by any standards).